Category: Accident Reports –  Page 4

A Lesson On Keeping The Aircraft in Trim

On the 28th of May 2019, a customer arrived at a flight school at Archerfield Airport, Queensland for their first flight experience. The aircraft that day was a Cessna 152, a two-person, single-engine aircraft popular for training as it has low operating and maintenance costs but, more importantly, it is a durable and forgiving aircraft…

Read more… 29 Jan 21

Explosive Decompression on the Ground

The Gulfstream G150, a twin-engine business jet, arrived at Kittilä airport in Lapland on a cold Tuesday afternoon on the 2nd of January 2018, carrying three crew and four passengers. It was snowing and the temperature was around -5°C (23°F). Normally the aircraft was kept in a hangar if available, however, this wasn’t possible at…

Read more… 4 Dec 20

I am the problem: PSA flight 1771

On the 7th of December in 1987, Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 1771 departed Los Angeles International for a scheduled passenger flight to San Francisco. There were five crew and thirty-eight passengers on board. The aircraft was a British Aerospace BAE-146-200, a four-engine airliner which was (and still is) popular with regional airlines like PSA for…

Read more… 13 Nov 20

The Cockpit and the Cabin: 2019 Incident at Stansted

We talk a lot about Cockpit Resource Management and the importance of the captain and the first officer acting as a team. A related issue which has had a lot less focus is the importance of communication between the cockpit and the cabin. On the first of March 2019, an Airbus A320-214 registration OE-LOA suffered…

Read more… 30 Oct 20

In the cabin of Southwest flight 1380

Last week, we looked at Southwest Airlines flight 1380 which suffered an engine failure while climbing to cruise altitude on the 17th of April 2018. A fragment from the engine broke a cabin window, leading to a rapid depressurisation event. The crew immediately descended and diverted to Philadelphia, landing safely seventeen minutes after the engine…

Read more… 25 Sep 20

In the cockpit of Southwest flight 1380

On the 17th of April in 2018, Southwest Airlines flight 1330 experienced an engine failure while climbing to cruise altitude. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-7H4 (registration N772SW) with two turbofan engines manufactured by CFM International. The CFM-7B24 engine has 24 fan blades installed on the fan disk. The flight departed normally from LaGuardia Airport…

Read more… 18 Sep 20

Accident Reports

The Sad Story of the Seawind 3000 N8UU

For this post, I’m going to start with the NTSB report of an accident which took place on the 3rd of July 2021 on Lake Michigan. The aircraft was a…

Causal Factors of the Piper Malibu Crash near Guernsey

Sometimes it seems like these posts get longer every year that I keep doing this. This collection of details from the AAIB report that I left out of the Piper…

Demystifying

Questions and Answers: It's Your Turn

A Fear of Landing reader asked me a great question in email. Is there some way of asking general technical questions that relate to aircraft or airport operations rather than…

Wings for Wildlife: Aviation at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, founded in 1977, is a charity focused on the conservation, preservation and protection of wildlife and habitats in Kenya. Their well-written newsletters are always a joy…

History

The Mount Erebus Disaster

On the 28th of November 1979, a sight-seeing flight to Antartica crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 on board. The Mount Erebus Disaster, as it came to be known,…

An Icon of Aviation

I have a guest post this week by Nicholas Brown, the Campus President of Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology. The college has been rebuilding a replica of Little Stinker,…

Fun Stuff

Funniest Thing You've Heard On the Radio

I’ve been struggling this week and was just panicking that I would not have a post finished in time for you for today when I discovered that Reddit had saved…

A Little Bit of Everything

There’s so much great aviation writing and video out there and I’m always appreciative when people send me fun things; it seems a shame not to share them! So here’s…